SAT and ACT Test Should be Optional

By KaraP When I was in high school during my junior year, I took the SAT and the ACT. I scored pretty well on both luckily. I was really nervous when I went in to take the test, and while I was taking the test I got really stressed out. There was some material on both of the test that I hadn’t learned and ended up not learning at all throughout the rest of my high school years. After the exams I felt confident enough that I would at least pass them, or at least I prayed I would pass them, but I knew there was no way I was going to get a score that I felt I deserved for how hard I studied to get a good score on those exams. I didn’t feel like the score I got were valid measures of my ability to succeed in college or in life. I have always worked hard at work and I work very hard in college. My scores showed that I knew enough to pass but not to excel. I thrive every day to do good in my class I want to have all A’s but I understand that some class I’m going to receive a B because of maybe lack of understanding or small mistakes on each homework assignment or test adds up. But a C is unacceptable to me and the scores showed that a C was all I was good for. I don’t think that the test should be abolished because a lot of different test are very important, like the test we would have to take to become a doctor, a lawyer, or a teacher. I do feel like taking tests like the ACT and the SAT should be optional when we are going into college. I understand these test can be used for placement and that’s why I feel like they should be optional. If someone wants to test out of a class and be placed in a higher class then they have the option of doing that. If someone wants to start off in college at the lower level classes instead of testing out of it then they should also have that option. I didn’t mind taking the SAT and ACT but I do feel like it didn’t validly show my rate of success. So I do agree on changing thing about the test, but I also feel like they should take it a step further and make it optional. I think more people would succeed in college without an exam discouraging them.